A talented oboe player from south Norfolk has been awarded a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Gap year student Charlotte Evans, 18, from Little Ellingham, near Attleborough, hopes her success will boost her chances of fulfilling her dream to become a professional musician. The former Wymondham College pupil has been playing the oboe since she was 10 and practices for at least an hour every day. “Both my parents are musical. Mum plays flute and I was watching her playing in an orchestra and I thought I wanted to do that. I fell in love with the oboe – and it was the only instrument she couldn’t play,” she said.

At the age of 14 Charlotte won a spot in the Norfolk County Youth Orchestra, which has toured Serbia and Austria, and has also played for Aldeburgh Youth Musicians. Following her successful audition for the national orchestra, which only takes on seven oboe players each year, she said: “I was just absolutely over the moon. I was delighted.”

Now Charlotte is awaiting to hear back from universities and music conservatories to see where she can study next year, but she has already secured scholarships at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music. Her long term ambition is to play professionally in orchestras.